Just to update you: Now that I have retired at age 65, I am planning to "get off" SNRIs in the course of one year. It is my hope that during that time, I will be able to incrementally replace SNRIs with the occasional use of the Huachuma cactus23, in order to inspire me to stay the course. Unfortunately, I cannot expect help from retreat centers because of the rare side effect called "serotonin syndrome,4" but my understanding is that the condition is usually mild and can be easily treated. But since I can't expect retreat centers to assume the liability and PR concerns, it looks like I'll be on my own in this trial of mine.
I have, I should add, also written to psychedelic researchers in the States and in Canada5, trying to encourage them to perform trials to see how psychedelics, properly monitored, can help antidepressant "addicts" get off their "meds." No one seems interested, so it looks like I'm going to have to be a pioneer in this area. That said, I wish I could get help from some Peruvian shamans, because I just cannot believe that a dependence on Big Pharma meds is the one problem in the world that plant medicine cannot treat. Sure, there are risks, but no one seems to be balancing these risks against the potential benefits, nor looking at the downsides of doing nothing, starting with the utterly demoralizing knowledge that antidepressants 6 make the user a ward of the healthcare state and an eternal patient.
Besides, the key ingredient to a good huachuma experience seems to be motivation, and I cannot imagine someone more motivated to change than myself, or the millions like me who have been demoralized by their dependence on Big Pharma meds7.
For now, I'm working on my Spanish, in preparation for another trip to Cusco8 in a month or two. While there, I will seek out long-term housing, practice my Spanish, and make preparations of huachuma cactus (starting with smaller doses) to see if and how they might help me cope with the psychological downsides of antidepressant withdrawal. Thanks for your interest in my situation, and I wish you luck in your adventures as a western shaman. Your journeys look very interesting to me. Hopefully I can take advantage of them in a year or so when I've gotten off of Big Pharma 910 meds entirely.
A law proposed in Colorado in February 2024 would have criminalized positive talk about drugs online. What? The world is on the brink of nuclear war because of hate-driven politics, and I can be arrested for singing the praises of empathogens?
If there were no other problem with antidepressants, they would be wrong for the simple reason that they make a user dependent for life -- not as a bug (as in drugs like opium) but rather as a feature: that's how they "work," by being administered daily for a lifetime.
"Drugs" is imperialist terminology. In the smug self-righteousness of those who use it, I hear Columbus's disdain for the shroom use of the Taino people and the Spanish disdain for the coca use of the Peruvian Indians.
The American Philosophy Association should make itself useful and release a statement saying that the drug war is based on fallacious reasoning, namely, the idea that substances can be bad in themselves, without regard for why, when, where and/or how they are used.
I could tell my psychiatrist EXACTLY what would "cure" my depression, even without getting addicted, but everything involved is illegal. It has to be. Otherwise I would have no need of the psychiatrist.
Drug warriors are full of hate for "users." Many of them make it clear that they want users to die (like Gates and Bennett...). The drug war has weaponized inhumanity.
People talk about how dangerous Jamaica is -- but no one reminds us that it is all due to America's Drug War. Yes, cannabis and psilocybin are legal there, but plenty of drugs are not, and even if they were, their illegality elsewhere would lead to fierce dealer rivalry.
The Drug War is based on a huge number of misconceptions and prejudices. Obviously it's about power and racism too. It's all of the above. But every time I don't mention one specifically, someone makes out that I'm a moron. Gotta love Twitter.
Even the worst forms of "abuse" can be combatted with a wise use of a wide range of psychoactive drugs, to combat both physical and psychological cravings. But drug warriors NEED addiction to be a HUGE problem. That's their golden goose.
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